This is the objective – on a longer timescale in some cases – across several of the countries in the Caribbean Basin, aiming to cleanse the region of governments deemed undesirable to Washington.

As international relations professor at the University of Chicago, John Mearsheimer reminds us, the US "does not tolerate left-leaning governments… and as soon as they see a government that is considered to be left-of-center they move to replace that government."

In the Financial Times, Ryan Berg, head of the Americas program at the Washington think-tank CSIS, which is heavily funded by Pentagon contractors, said that Trump's vision is for the US to be the "undisputable, pre-eminent power in the western hemisphere." The New York Times dubbed Trump's ambitions the "Donroe Doctrine."

After Venezuela, in the current US line of fire, is Honduras. This Central American country faces an election on November 30 which will determine whether the leftist Libre Party stays in power or whether the country reverts to neoliberalism.

The crisis in the Caribbean engineered by the Trump administration is being actively instrumentalized to distract Hondurans from domestic issues when deciding how to vote. Honduras's mainstream media repeatedly draw attention to the likelihood that Washington will threaten Honduras militarily if it votes the "wrong way" on November 30.

Interviewed on television, opposition candidate Salvador Nasralla was asked what would happen if the Libre Party won. He replied: "Those ships that are soon going to take over Venezuela are going to come and target Honduras." Amplifying the supposed threat, opposition candidates have posted street signs labeling themselves "anti-communist," as if communism were actually on offer in the election.

In a bizarre article, the Wall Street Journal alleges that Venezuela aims to "gobble up Honduras." Turning on its head recent alarming evidence of a plot by Libre's opponents to steal the election, the article claims that Venezuela is schooling Libre in defrauding the Honduran people.

This argument is also being repeated enthusiastically in the US Congress by María Elvira Salazar and others. On November 12, Deputy Secretary of State Christopher Landau said the US government "will respond rapidly and firmly to any attack on the integrity of the electoral process in Honduras." In fact, the US is working with the opposition to undermine the popular mandate.